USA TODAY International Edition
Oldest rookie kept dream alive
Traveling the back roads of professional golf can be a long and lonely journey.
It’s a trying passage through tours like the Golden Bear, Gateway, Adams and Web.com, with plenty of stops at mini tours, state opens, Q schools and Monday qualifiers added to the itinerary as you chase your childhood dream. It’s a tiring trek that tests the mettle of a man as the miles, and then years, pile up. Doubts become your wingman as the holy grail that is the PGA Tour remains in the distance and the dream that is your 15th club in the bag becomes more difficult to hold onto.
For nearly two decades, however, Chris Thompson clung to hope. Last year, his voyage of 19 years landed on the light at the end of the tunnel.
Playing some of the best golf of his life, Thompson secured his PGA Tour card for the first time when he had three topfour finishes on the Web.com Tour and finished in a tie for 24th the following week in the tour’s regular-season finale. That left him at $181,738 in earnings, good enough for 20th place and inside The 25, the top money winners who earned PGA Tour membership.
At 42, he’s the oldest rookie on the PGA Tour this season, and he kicks off his new year in paradise Thursday in the Sony Open in Hawaii at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu.
“There were some years where you have to sit back and reflect and you have to rely on the people that you trust and make the best decision that you can,” Thompson said ahead of the Sony Open. “I’m not saying I made the right decision. Ended up being right. There is no answer key. You’re trying to figure it out as you go. My wife and I assessed it at the end of every year. Do we shut it down and do something else or do we keep going?
“She’s always leaned on the side of keep going. I was probably that way, too, but there were a couple years we had to make a tough decision. I’m glad we stuck it out. This is pretty cool for me.”
Thompson could pen a book of his arduous tour to the Tour, emphasizing the difficulties of leaving his wife and two children for the road, the stressful rounds with his future on the line, the job offers, mostly in the golf business, that made him question his quest. But his dream won out each time.
“I think the longer you do it and the older you get you have more life experience. You start to have a family and kids, you realize there are more important things than golf,” Thompson said. “This is incredibly important, but there is also real life. You got to separate the golf world from the real world.
“I do think you get better perspective, big picture stuff. I’ve played all over the U.S. and the world, so I do think playing different types of golf will prepare me for this. Whether I can do it or not, I don’t know. I’m going to try hard.”
Since taking possession of his PGA Tour card, Thompson missed two cuts and finished in a tie for 45th in the fall portion of the 2018-19 season. Keeping his card will be a challenge, he said, but one he cherishes. He knows his competition is getting younger, fitter and better, that there’s one more star around every dogleg, but he’s ready to see if his game holds up.
“You’ve got to get the ball in the hole, and there are a lot of different ways to do that,” he said. “I’m probably not going to get any fitter or any better, but I still know how to play. I feel like I can get it around.
“I’m 42, so I don’t know how many opportunities I’m going to get at this. That being said, I’m still going to enjoy the heck out of this.”